Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1029/2023GL105429
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) Prediction of extraordinarily high floods emerging from heterogeneous flow generation processes
Author Mushtaq, S.; Miniussi, A.; Merz, R.; Tarasova, L.; Marra, F.; Basso, S.
Source Titel Geophysical Research Letters
Year 2023
Department CATHYD
Volume 50
Issue 20
Page From e2023GL105429
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Supplements https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1029%2F2023GL105429&file=2023GL105429-sup-0001-Supporting+Information+SI-S01.pdf
Keywords extreme events; flood divides; heterogeneous processes; flood quantiles; flood frequency estimation; simplified metastatistical extreme value
Abstract River floods are generated by various processes that, if disregarded, may induce errors in flood hazard assessment. This is particularly relevant where events extraordinarily larger than the typical floods have been observed, that is, for rivers with a flood divide in their flood-frequency curves. We identify 11 such cases in a large set of German catchments and test a statistical approach that accounts for different runoff-generation processes to predict the magnitude and frequency of extraordinarily high floods. We observe that in catchments with a flood divide, ordinary peaks are generated by different runoff-generation processes and the distribution of at least one process is heavy-tailed. By accounting for the different tail behaviors of multiple processes, we can reproduce flood-frequency curves in these catchments. Our findings shed light on the origin of flood divides and set a method to improve the estimation of high flood quantiles in these high-risk cases.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=28161
Mushtaq, S., Miniussi, A., Merz, R., Tarasova, L., Marra, F., Basso, S. (2023):
Prediction of extraordinarily high floods emerging from heterogeneous flow generation processes
Geophys. Res. Lett. 50 (20), e2023GL105429 10.1029/2023GL105429